Thursday, February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine's Day


Today is Valentine's Day.  In case you are looking for the Second Thursday Tutorial, it is late for a very specific reason.  Please check back next Tuesday to see why I've postponed it.  It's definitely worth the wait.

Valentine's Day has a complicated and complex history.  Let's see what the experts tell us.

According to Valentine's Day.org:
There are various legends associated with the festival along with the belief that birds began to mate from this day. 
Historians trace the origin of Valentine's Day to ancient Roman Empire. It is said that in the Rome of ancient times people observed a holiday on February 14th to honor Juno - the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also regarded Juno as the Goddess of Women and Marriage. On the following day, February 15th began the fertility festival called 'Feast of Lupercalia'. The festival of Lupercalia was celebrated to honor the Gods Lupercus and Faunus - the Roman God of Agriculture besides the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.
History.com has a slightly different take on the event:
St. Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.
Hello Giggles may have the most bizarre answers:
While the romantic holiday inevitably becomes about cards, candy, and dinner reservations, the history of Valentine’s Day is a far cry from what we celebrate today. Much of the February celebration’s origins are unknown, but what we do know proves that human culture is fascinating — and not always romantic.
Before St. Valentine, there was an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia. Reports vary, but NPR reported in 2011 that men would sacrifice a goat during this celebration in mid-February. Then, they’d whip women with the skins of the dead animals.
Even though this sounds pretty horrifying, women were apparently into this type of behavior.
Apparently, women thought this behavior would make them more fertile.   If this was not bizarre enough, there was also, according to Hello Giggles a lottery:
Men would draw women’s names from a vase to then be sexually partnered up with them for the rest of the feast. Sometimes, the couple would stay together after the celebration and marry. Eventually, Christians took out the pagan practices of Lupercalia and adapted it into a more familiar version of the holiday.
When the Christians intervened, St. Valentine got involved — but even the history of St. Valentine is unclear. As the Franciscan Media reported, the Catholic Church removed St. Valentine’s Day as an official feast day in 1969 due to its unclear origins. It is believed, though, that there were two men by the name of Valentine who were both executed by the Roman emperor Claudius II.
The Valentine whose myth gets the most attention is that of the Roman priest Valentine who was executed on February 14th in the third century.  The tale states that Emperor Claudius put an end to marriages in Rome because he thought men weren’t joining the army due to having families. Valentine allegedly disobeyed this order and married young couples in secret. He was punished by being beheaded on the day we now celebrate as Valentine’s Day.
History.com confirms this about St. Valentine.  Valentine's Day.org provides yet another theory:
According to another version of legend Valentine was killed because he attempted to help Christians escape from the Roman prison as they were being tortured and beaten there. Yet another popular version of the legend states that while in prison Valentine or Valentinus fell in love with jailer's daughter who visited him during confinement. Before his death Valentine wrote a farewell letter to his sweetheart from the jail and signed ‘From your Valentine'. The expression became quite popular amongst love struck and is still very much in vogue. 
By the Middle Ages, Valentine assumed the image of heroic and romantic figure amongst the masses in England and France. Later, when Christianity spread through Rome, the priests moved Lupercalia from February 15 to February 14. Around 498 AD, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine's Day to honor the martyr Valentinus and to end the pagan celebration.  
Despite the myths about the romantic Roman priest, one historian credited Geoffrey Chaucer for connecting Valentine’s Day to love. The New York Times noted that Jack B. Oruch, who died in 2013, wrote that he had found no connection between Valentine’s Day and love until Chaucer wrote the poems “Parlement of Foules” and “The Complaint of Mars.”
That wasn’t until the late 14th century.  After Chaucer, other writers romanticized the holiday — like the very notable William Shakespeare. But in the 20th century, Hallmark changed the holiday as humans knew it, offering valentines in 1913 before mass producing them in 1916.
Although it was not created by card companies as some people believe, Valentine Day's roots obviously lie in ancient Rome.  And if you, like me, don't care for the commercialism this day has created, it is still better than being whipped by a bloody goatskin.

I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love, caring, and sharing (and no bloody goatskins).  Thanks for visiting.  Bleubeard, Squiggles, and I send our love.

20 thoughtful remarks:

Tracey@Hotchpotchcreations said...

(((Elizabeth))) I hope you are feeling better today? What a horrid time you have had our animals are our best of friends in time of need and a quiet cuddle. Today's post is so informative, i'm not drawn by the commercial side of Valentines day and after 30 years of being with Hubby we do not need a card to show how much we care about each other. I have to say though I am glad those whipping with animal skin days are over... How awful!!
Hugs for the day however you choose to spend it and take good care of yourself Tracey xx

Valerie-Jael said...

Very interesting infos, thanks for sharing. Valerie

Anne (cornucopia) said...

Fantastic Valentine's Day card. I hope you have a great day today.

Cath Wilson said...

This is a really interesting post, Elisabeth - and intriguing as someone from the UK, where it's barely celebrated, despite supermarkets and other retailers doing their best to promote it, lol. When working in France, I was really surprised by one of the Americans I knew giving me a card for the day - that's such an alien concept over here. It's just a time to celebrate love between couples - or sent to someone you really like - often anonymously, lol.
Sorry you've had a hard time. Hope you're feeling better today.
Cath x

Meggymay said...

Love to you, Bluebeard and Squiggles this Valentines day and I hope you are feeling a little better today.
This was a super interesting post to read. We have never bothered with Valentines day in our home. Love is an all the year round thing for us and feel it is far to commercial, the hype, raised prices get me ranting as well.
Yvonne xx

Jeanie said...

It's only as commercial as we make it. If we make our own cards or candies or dinners, not so much but still even more love!

This post really was interesting. Thanks for all the fun background.

Divers and Sundry said...

I like the flowers and candy when they come my way and miss when people sent cards cards, I must say :) I love your dimensional 14. Gorgeous!

Sandra Cox said...

I hope you are much, much better today. I've heard food poisoning is horrific. So sorry to hear you went through that!
Thanks for the history on Valentine's Day. Hope yours is purrfect!

J said...

We don’t celebrate it as it’s so commercialised nowadays, prices all go up to fleece everyone, my valentine spent this morning putting together an Ikea CD shelf unit that’s been used as a shelf for five years, then he cut it to measure to make me a shelf to put my inks on behind my TH glass mat and the other part he made a shelf for the other side of the room, what a star
Sorry you haven’t been well Elizabeth, I once had food poisoning on holiday, not a pleasant thing so hope you are feeling much better,
Jan x


Birgit said...

How romantic...whippings, goats being killed, beheadings...what a lovely way to bring love into one's life:). Hope you are better

froebelsternchen said...

I so hope you feel better Sweetie!
Happy Valentine's Day!

Take good care of you!
♥♥♥♥♥

Susi

da tabbies o trout towne said...

happee heartz day oh lovez frum all oh uz in de land oh trout ♥♥♥♥♥ ☺☺☺

RO said...

Wow! There sure is lots of history tied to today, and I thank you for the info. Happy Valentine's Day and sure hope you're feeling much better today! Hugs...RO

Caty said...

Love this so interesting post Elizabeth !! REally I´ve never heard about so many opinions about Valentine´s day, till now ! Thanks so much for sharing all this information with us. For sure, it´s very commercial nowdays, and I think that every day is a Valentine´s day, if we want, just we could be better every day.I hope all is well for you, and I wish you a very nice afternoon.
I also send big big friendly hugs,
Caty

Caty said...

Elizabeth, I hope you feel better today, big big big hugs .

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

This was so interesting. I never knew about any of these histories or myths. We don't do too much about Valentine's Day, either. Maybe flowers. But no cards. And we don't even go out to eat for Valentine's Day. Our special Days are birthdays and our anniversary. And of course Christmas and Thanksgiving Day. (We don't even get that much into Halloween, although we always have candies available for the trick-or-treaters.

Halle said...

I hope your feeling better. I like that stamp!
Happy Valentine's day!

kathyinozarks said...

Wow this was very interesting about the history-I had not heard of some of it-all very interesting.
hope you feel better
Happy Valentines day

Cindy McMath said...

Hope you are feeling better - getting worried! Xo

Lowcarb team member said...

Belated good wishes for Valentines Day :)

All the best Jan